


Shock Doctrine

by Mahayana



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon Compliant, Dark, Gen, Psychological Drama
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-20
Updated: 2014-04-20
Packaged: 2018-01-20 04:15:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1496257
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mahayana/pseuds/Mahayana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Driven by loss and hatred, Uchiha Sasuke has joined Orochimaru as his student. But will Sasuke's quest for power lead him to greater strength, or will the world of deception and mind-games only lead to his own destruction? After all, as Orochimaru told him once, humans will not appreciate the value of something until they have lost it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shock Doctrine

**Author's Note:**

  * For [mangacrack](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mangacrack/gifts).



> This fic is a present for mangacrack, and written for the Naruto Fic Fest 2014. Her request was death, insanity, and character study in combination with Sasuke, Orochimaru, and Team Hebi. So anticipate some gory fights ahead. You have been warned.
> 
> As this is a Sasuke-centric fic, my solemn promise to you, dear reader, is that the words "the raven" will not be appearing in this fic.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

“Humans will not appreciate the value of something until they have lost it.” Orochimaru told him once, watching Sasuke’s naked back tense as the boy prepared to copy the jutsu. Sasuke grit his teeth and focused on forming the seals Orochimaru had shown him. “Humanity is fickle,” his mentor murmured, catching a bead of sweat rolling down the boy’s neck with a tightly-bandaged finger. Sasuke suppressed a shiver, ripping his mind back to his breath, and released a cloud of poison gas through his mouth. The cloud gushed out, first in one violent torrent, then tapered to a trickle down his lips and chin. Sasuke wiped his mouth and grimaced at the taste, red eyes slicing to Orochimaru. The pale man laughed breathily beside him.

“Not bad,” he said. “For a first try.” Not good enough, Sasuke translated. He could do better than that. He _had_ to do better than that. “Don’t touch me,” Sasuke ground out, his bare feet scraping over grass and dirt as he firmed his stance.

Coming here to Orochimaru’s hideout… This is what he had sacrificed everything for. It had been two months since his arrival at the Oto base, and he did not regret it. Already he had filled in gaps in his knowledge it would have taken him years to discover in Konoha. Orochimaru was a much more attentative teacher than Kakashi had ever been. But that was part of their bargain. This was why he had left.

Konoha had not been his home anyway. Not for years. He hadn’t had a home since he was seven, Sasuke reflected. Not since Itachi murdered their clan.

The clan grounds had been a taped-off crime-scene for that first year after the massacre. And after that… nobody had wanted to go in there. Ghosts lived there now, the housewives whispered. Even young Sasuke barely wanted to venture into the houses with the bloodstained florboards. The caregiver paid to take care of him for those first few months just bought him new clothes, a new toothbrush, found him a nice apartment, and then left him to fend for himself. He had to sneak into his own home to get his Uchiha clan shirts back. This is how it worked with Konoha’s orphans. Sasuke had lost his home, and in that, he had lost everything. He refused to lose his clan name too.

At the same time, he had gained something. First despair. An emotion he naively though he had understood at the age of seven as he looked up Itachi’s broad back. Such an impossible figure to catch up to. Someone who had graduated at the top of his academy class at seven, mastered the clan’s eye techniques at eight, and became a chuunin at ten. After the massacre… Sasuke didn’t know why he even lived. But his goal had ultimately stayed the same: Catch up to Itachi.

What kept him alive, and burned his frozen heart back into beating, was revenge. He had nothing left but that. The first and only thing his clan relied on him for. Sasuke aimed to surpass their expectations. And found himself falling short once again. Just like at the pier with his father.

Mastering the Gogakyu no Jutsu, his clan’s signature fire technique, had been one of his proudest moments. But he had gotten too comfortable living in Konoha. It made him soft.

He grimly formed the hand seals again. Fingers contorting into tiger, snake, ox, snake, dragon, dog, and snake as he took a great inhale of the bitter air. “That’s it,” Orochimaru whispered from beside him, breath stirring the fine hairs at Sasuke’s nape. “Focus your chakara into your stomach, then your lungs, then your mouth. You have to change the air into poison as it passes your lips, otherwise you will only poison yourself while performing the jutsu.” Sasuke exhaled the purple cloud, this time in a steady stream that rapidly expanded over the darkened Oto training field. But the poison was too thin. The cloud evaporated within the next few seconds, not even killing the crickets still chirping in the summer grass. Sasuke frowned as Orochimaru laughed. Sasuke hated his laugh, but hunched his shoulders and performed the hand seals once again. And again. As many times as it would take to kill Itachi.

Later, when he fell into his creaky bed, exhausted, aching, and still damp from his shower, his mouth tasting sweet and bitter from poison, Sasuke thought of Itachi. Itachi could still throw him like a rag doll. He had wasted so many months of his life in Konoha, playing house with Kakashi and Team 7. The candle in his room flickered. Sasuke stared listlessly at the geometric whorls carved into the sandstone ceiling and tried not to think about Naruto’s monstrous chakara capacity.

Like foreshadowing, Sasuke’s door slowly creaked open. He craned his neck up to see Orochimaru standing in his doorway, silhouetted against the dim backdrop of the underground base’s hallway, holding something. Sasuke sat up.

“Sasuke-kun, I’d like you to eat this,” Orochimaru held up two small pills.

“What is it?” Sasuke asked mistrustfully.

“It’s a chakara enhancer. It will help you regenerate your chakara faster.” Sasuke raised a skeptical eyebrow. His experiences with Orochimaru’s medicines so far have all been agonizing... But thinking of the cursed seal, you couldn’t really argue with the results. “Some say you’re still too young for such medicines,” Orochimaru continued unhurriedly, “but I want to see if you can handle them.”

Sasuke’s feet slapped the cold stone floor, and he boldly stalked forward, grabbing the two small pills out of Orochimaru’s hand and crunching them between his teeth. Orochimaru’s smile only widened. “Very good Sasuke-kun. We will see you in the morning then, to continue your training.”

Sasuke barely heard the door slam shut before the fire in his stomach brought him to his knees. Bracing shaking hands on the dusty floor, he gasped for breath, eyes wide and unseeing. An inferno was consuming him alive. His veins felt stretched and full, and he grit his teeth against the nausea that came with the pain. He could take this. Naruto had probably felt this this too, when that malicious, red chakara had burned the skin off his arms. If Naruto could do it, Sasuke would do even better. After all, he had Itachi to surpass. If he couldn’t even beat Naruto, he may as well end his life now. Beyond Itachi, he had nothing to live for. He owed the Uchiha clan that much. So he shut his eyes, pulled his burning body onto his bed, and waited for the medicine to take its course. If it brought him closer to Itachi, it was worth it.

* * *

As the months wore on, Sasuke’s body filled out and broadened. His bangs grew longer. He didn’t bother cutting them. Every morning when he woke up to brush his teeth and wash his face, he now saw Itachi staring back at him from the cracked bathroom mirror. They were siblings, so the resemblance wasn’t surprising. But it unnerved him at first. Sasuke didn’t look like the Itachi from his early memories.

Staring this dead-eyed Itachi in the face every morning, Sasuke knew he was catching up to his brother. This is what he had to become in order to kill Itachi, because this is what Itachi had become to kill their clan.

But at the same time, Sasuke had resolved not to be his older brother. His murderous rage and killing intent were a gift for Uchiha Itachi only. And with as many opportunities as Orochimaru presented him with to kill enemy ninja, double-crossing spies, and the stray test subject, Sasuke refused to bow to his will. Indiscriminate murder would make him no better than the very man he was trying to kill.

Orochimaru could do his own dirty work. Sasuke was only here to gain power.

“You seem a bit tired lately, Sasuke-kun,” Kabuto observed mildly as he set his breakfast before him. Sasuke stared down at his plate of rice and eggs, and scowled.

“Still not a morning person I see,” Kabuto laughed and took a sip of his green tea, sitting down beside Sasuke at the table and eating his own breakfast. Sasuke couldn’t tell him of course why he was so tired in the mornings. Staying up until 4am every night to stalk the dark libraries, research laboratories, and training fields to practice and refine jutsu in secret was tiring. He didn’t fool himself into thinking it was because of his own special skill he could get away with so much around Orochimaru. Orochimaru simply didn’t keep as tight of a reign on him as on everyone else. It was a foolish mistake on the Sannin’s part, but Sasuke wasn’t going to complain. If that caused people to whisper “pet” behind his back, he didn’t care. He could slit their throats easily enough if they really pissed him off.

Sasuke took a bite of his perfectly-cooked eggs and chewed thoughtfully.

“We will be needing you in the laboratory today,” Kabuto said politely as he finished his last bite, and rose to clean up the table. “We want to raise your poison resistance to a few of the rarer poisons being used. And we will probably need to supervise your reactions to them at first. They can be quite strong.”

Sasuke nodded. “When should I be there?”

Kabuto collected Sasuke’s now empty plate and poured him a cup of tea as well. “Probably in about ten minutes. I took the liberty of sprinkling some on your rice, so the effects should be setting in soon.”

Sasuke did not look impressed.

“Don’t worry, it was only a small dosage. You may need to… ah, use the bathroom suddenly though.”

“Thank you for the warning,” Sasuke deadpanned, rising. He eyed his tea suspiciously.

“Don’t worry about the tea. It’s just tea. You may want to drink it, so you don’t become dehydrated.”

Sasuke grudgingly grabbed the cup and swallowed the tea. Ultimately, improving his poison-resistance was a good thing, but he couldn’t say he enjoyed the process. If he didn’t recover quickly enough, his secret training would have to pause for today. Not that that was necessarily a bad thing. He had started to lose feeling in his fingers from overuse of his lightning jutsu, and probably needed a break anyway. Shaping the lightning chakara into a thin blade was much harder than simply letting it crackle wildly through his body.

“We are conducting another experiment later today too. We have two test subjects we plan to have fight, and their abilities are quite unique. You may be interested in joining us for observations.”

“Hn, which arena will they be in?”

“Number 4. It has the sturdiest walls.”

Sasuke nodded, muttering “I’ll be there,” then abruptly turned on his heel and stalked towards the laboratory. The poison was setting in.

* * *

Sasuke’s stomach rolled uncomfortably as he observed the scene below. The poison still hadn’t worn off completely, but at least he was able to stand. It was a struggle though. Orochimaru was casually leaning against the railing beside him, and Sasuke refused to show weakness.

With a steadying breath, Sasuke turned his attention back to the budding battle. One of the test subjects fighting was the original of the cursed seal, Orochimaru had whispered. Sasuke hadn’t thought much of the burly, yet strangely calm, man as he walked into the arena, but the heavy chains wrapped around his wrists and ankles did cause Sasuke to raise an eyebrow. While Orochimaru’s unwilling test subjects were usually shackled, they were never restrained so heavily. The two guards that had walked the man named “Juugo” into the arena had shifted nervously as their colleague unlocked the iron manacles and let them drop unceremoniously to the stone ground. Juugo hadn’t moved. Not even to rub at his liberated wrists. The guards retreated hastily.

Juugo stared up at the walkway ringing the arena, right to where Orochimaru was standing.

“You promised to keep me from killing. Now that Kimmimaro’s gone, who will stop me if I go out of control?” the man, Juugo, shouted up to the snake Sannin.

Kabuto stepped in to answer on Orochimaru’s behalf. “We have multiple guards stationed around the arena, and Orochimaru-sama and myself are here should you need restraining.”

Juugo only stared up at Kabuto silently then cut his eyes to Sasuke, his orange hair falling into his face, but he said nothing. Eventually he gave a small nod of acknowledgment and turned to his approaching opponent.

A small, blue-haired boy of about eleven was walked into the arena. His wrists were also chained, but there were sigils printed on the sides of his manacles. Those dropped to the ground as well as a guard unlocked them, and bent down to whisper something into the small boy’s ear. The boy’s pale-blue eyes widened in horror as he looked up Juugo’s intimidating figure.

All the guards retreated and locked the arena entrances after themselves. Orochimaru grinned in anticipation. “Kiri, if you kill Juugo, I will let your cousin free.” Orochimaru called down encouragingly. Sasuke only raised an eyebrow at the comment.

The boy looked skeptical at Orochimaru’s words, but he firmed his stance and drew a kunai anyway, staring at Juugo with renewed resolve.

Orochimaru bit into his thumb with sharp teeth and let a drop of blood fall to the ground below. Juugo’s nostrils flared. His orange eyes bulged in his head and his breathing grew heavier. Juugo clawed at his biceps as if in pain, hunching in on himself.

The blue haired boy seemed to think this was his chance. With quick, fluid steps he ran at Juugo, kunai pointed at the man’s neck. The blade was millimeters away from Juugo’s cartroid, when the man suddenly lashed out. His right arm came at the young boy like a hammer, solid and unforgiving as it plowed into the boy’s side and sent him skidding along the floor. The boy hit the arena wall with a splash. Sasuke narrowed his eyes at the forming puddle under the boy. It wasn’t uncommon for injured bodies to lose bladder control, but this wasn’t it… A trail of bloody skid marks showed where the boy had bounced along the ground, but the boy’s back, which had hit the wall, was uninjured… and wet. Sasuke blinked on his Sharingan to better observe the battle. Orochimaru smiled.

The blue haired boy lightly coughed up some blood and wiped his mouth with a delicate hand, wincing in pain. He reached for another kunai from his holster. Juugo hadn’t moved an inch, still crouching on the ground in a trembling ball. His shaking had gotten worse, and he was muttering something Sasuke couldn’t hear.

The boy frowned. With a decisive set of his shoulders he formed the seals of a jutsu and took a deep breath, his chest expanding rapidly from the force of it.

A wave of water spewed forth from his mouth, creating sharp blades as it sped towards Juugo. Juugo didn’t dodge. The wave crashed over him, obscuring him from sight for a moment as water filled the arena.

“Well, I suppose the arena needed a good wash anyway.” Kabuto muttered, and scribbled something onto his notepad.

Juugo burst at the boy from within the wave, his skin now a dull gray and his eyes wide and manic. He was laughing like a lunatic, rushing at the boy with a deformed fist. The boy barely dodged as Juugo’s fist embedded itself in the stone wall behind him, cracking it on impact. Sasuke frowned, and Kabuto scribbled another note in his notepad.

“Is this all there is to this? A slaughter?” Sasuke asked Orochimaru, annoyance tinging his voice. He had better things to do than watch young children get murdered for fun. He could be training, or researching jutsu. He still felt nauseous from the poison, and watching all the motion below wasn’t helping.

“Don’t worry Sasuke-kun, the boy should be cornered into using his special technique soon enough. I promise it will be worth your time,” Orochimaru reassured Sasuke indulgently. Kabuto adjusted his glasses.

Below them, the fight raged on. The boy was doing his best now to keep distance between himself and the raging monster Juugo had become, showering the burly man with long-range water jutsu. They seemed to have no more effect on Juugo’s tough skin than paper shuriken would have though. The water blades and needles slid harmlessly around him, barely leaving scratches in their wake. The scratches themselves evaporated as soon as they were made. Sasuke saw the boy cry out in frustration and fear as, once again, his best efforts resulted in nothing more than a cold shower for his opponent.

Juugo was getting faster and more aggressive. With each evasive move the boy tried, Juugo compensated with another violent burst of speed. Soon enough, he had the boy cornered, flexing his fingers in bloodthirsty glee. The boy screamed and closed his eyes as a misshapen, grey fist flew towards his head. But upon impact, instead of the crunch of bone, there was only the wet splash of water. Juugo’s fist ended up embedded in the stone wall behind the boy’s head. Juugo stared at his fist in puzzlement. His knuckles were wet, but not from blood. He stared at the boy’s intact skull as it melted back into liquid form, and tried again. And again. Beside Sasuke, Kabuto clicked on a timer.

“He’s from the Hozuki clan,” Orochimaru explained as Sasuke stared down at the scene in wonder. “We captured a few of their members three weeks ago. Their clan has the unique ability to liquefy their body at will. It’s very convenient as you can see.” Orochimaru shot the boy a meaningful look.

“Right,” Sasuke murmured. “How long can they keep doing it?”

“That’s what we’re trying to find out.” Orochimaru leered. Below them, the wet sounds of a fist trying to punch the boy’s head in continued. Sasuke could tell the boy was tiring. It took longer and longer for his head to reform after a hit. Eventually he just gave up and stayed headless. Juugo moved his punches lower, aiming at his ribs and abdomen. The water took on a pink tint as the boy failed to completely liquefy his chest. Juugo bared his teeth in a satisfied grin, and wound his fist back for a final, decisive blow. This was the moment he was waiting for. Orochimaru looked on with mild interest. Kabuto kept taking notes. Juugo’s fist sped toward’s the boy’s heart like a freight-train.

A large, white snake wrapped itself around Juugo’s arm and stopped his fist millimeters away from crushing the boy’s wet and bruised chest. Juugo strained against the serpent in vain, but the snake wound itself tightly around the rest of his body as well, holding him in place. He screamed in frustration, teeth grinding as he shouted about being denied his kill.

Sasuke slid Sharingan-red eyes to Orochimaru and raised an inquiring eyebrow, “Weren’t you planning on stopping him?”

Orochimaru only smiled back at Sasuke. “The experiment wasn’t done yet.”

Sasuke glanced down at the crumpled and bleeding form of the boy. He made quite a macabre sight without a head, lying in a large pool of blood and water. His kimono had fallen open, showing quickly-blossoming bruises on his battered ribs.

Juugo was still straining against Sasuke’s snake summon, but his gray skin had broken up into a pattern of all-too-familiar black blotches dancing like drops of ink over his body. Juugo squeezed his eyes shut and breathed hard through his nose.

Orochimaru gave a short laugh. “Well, we have as much data as we need for now. Kabuto, send in the guards to tranquilize Juugo, and a team of medics to take Kiri to the lab. I want to look at his body.”

“Of course, Orochimaru-sama,” Kabuto turned on his heel and took a step for the exit.

“Oh, and Kabuto, have a second Hozuki clan member ready for tomorrow. Let’s pick someone stronger this time. I want to see how a skilled Suiton user would hold up against Juugo.”

Kabuto bowed politely as Orochimaru passed by him, then followed the snake Sannin out of the arena.

Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan as guards and medic nin rushed into the arena and started an efficient clean-up. Juugo fell unconscious as one of the medics injected him with something. Sasuke dispelled his snake summon as the burly man slumped to the floor.

With nothing else to do, and the nausea in his stomach nearly gone, Sasuke decided to go off and train.

* * *

“Impressive, Sasuke-kun,” Orochimaru praised him from the high walkway of the stone arena. A hundred chuunin-level nin lay in various heaps around Sasuke’s feet. It had taken him fifteen minutes, and he wasn’t even breathing hard. Pathethic, Sasuke thought. Did Orochimaru think so poorly of him to make him fight vermin? He didn’t dignify the hollow praise with a response, only wiped Kusanagi’s blade clean on one of the fallen shinobi’s Kumogakure flank jackets, and sheathed his sword.

“Your kenjutsu training is coming along well, but you didn’t kill a single one of them” Orochimaru chided as he joined Sasuke on the ground level. As with everything Orochimaru did, he took his time. Walking down the stairs slowly, his slitted eyes trailed the piles of unconscious shinobi, assessing them for future projects. Those yellow eyes eventually fell on Sasuke’s body too. Slowly. Starting at his feet, the Sannin’s gaze slid up Sasuke’s shins and thighs, up his firm torso and broad shoulders, caressed up his neck, mouth, nose. Orochimaru finally looked him in the eyes, and Sasuke knew what Orochimaru was thinking. They were close to three years since Orochimaru’s last body-transfer. Sasuke was almost ready, and in only another year, it would be time. Sasuke kept his face carefully blank. Orochimaru was cunning, and gifted at reading people. He had to know Sasuke would not be giving his body over to the snake willingly. There was no point in giving him more clues than he unwittingly did already. Sasuke pressed his lips into a stubborn line and refused to break eye contact.

“There is no point in killing opponents weaker than myself,” Sasuke deadpanned. Despite Orochimaru’s disregard for life, it took more skill to disarm someone than to kill them. For Sasuke, it became a game. How many shinobi could he knock out before he was forced to use lethal force?

“How are you finding Kusanagi, Sasuke-kun? Is it to your liking?”

Sasuke nodded curtly, “It’s fine. Thank you.”

“The absence of a hand guard is not inconvenient? We can always add one back on.”

“No, there’s less air-resistance without it. It’s better for high-speed combat this way.”

“Of course,” Orochimaru nodded, licking his lips and showing a row of unnaturally sharp teeth as he grinned. “You are more suited for high-speed combat anyway. I am sure with your skill, the hand-guard on the katana won’t be needed.”

Sasuke only tucked his sword into the back of his purple rope belt. His performance would speak for itself.

“It seems as if this test was too easy for you. Perhaps next time, we can try a higher number of shinobi instead? Say… a thousand?”

“Do whatever you like. Just equip them better,” Sasuke turned on his heel and headed for the exit. His training was over for today.

“Kabuto,” Orochimaru called to the white-haired man currently scribbling some notes onto a clipboard, on the other side of the hall, “Send the clean-up crew down here to put the prisoners back into their cells. Keep a few strong ones in the laboratory for a few more experiments.”

“Yes, Orochimaru-sama,” Kabuto readjusted his glasses and made eye-contact with Sasuke as he passed him. Sasuke only kept walking though. There was no need for him to stay and watch Orochimaru and Kabuto work. He had no interest in their experiments.

Back in his room, Sasuke poured himself a glass of cold water from the bathroom tap and swallowed it in three thirsty gulps. He wiped his mouth and stared hard at his reflection. Today’s battle had taught him something important.

There was no way Itachi could have killed the entire Uchiha clan by himself.

He thought over the details of his own fight carefully. The ground in the arena had been mostly even, the chuunin he had fought were sparsely armed with standard kunai and shuriken, but nothing more. There had been nowhere to hide. Their emotions had ranged from nervous resolution to abject terror. If Orochimaru had captured them in such number so easily, most of them had not been chuunin for long. Probably freshly out of the academy, or unskilled losers lacking in higher skill. None of them had worked together to fight him. The Uchiha clan had been different.

His clan would not have expected murder in their own homes, and not all of his clansmen had been trained fighters. But most households had at least one or two chuunin or jounin level shinobi living amongst them. It was hard to believe that with so many Sharingan around, and surrounded by the entirety of Konoha’s police force, nobody would have noticed the murder spree happening sooner and banded together to stop it. Itachi had been an extraordinary prodigy, but he had been one in a clan of many. And he would have had only so much time to kill everyone before sunrise. The Uchiha had not been a small clan.

At least one Uchiha should have been able to slip past Itachi’s notice and somehow alert Konoha’s night-shift guards. In person, via a summon or a messenger bird. Anything. With some bitterness, Sasuke reflected that as the sole survivor, he should have been the one to call the guards and stop Itachi. But Sasuke had passed out like a coward from Itachi’s Tsukuyomi and only woken up weak and disoriented at the hospital days later.

Sasuke sat his plastic cup back down by the sink and promptly stripped off his haori. Kusanagi he removed from his belt and set just outside of the door. He stank of sweat and metal, and needed a shower. Thoughts still buzzing in his head like wasps, Sasuke stepped out of his pants and briefs, and cranked on the water in the tiny shower stall as hot as it would go. The pipes groaned, and the shower head sputtered to life. His hands and feet felt like ice.

There must have been someone else working with Itachi. Someone powerful.

The hot water hit him as he stepped under the steaming spray, and Sasuke hissed, slightly lowering the temperature to something more tolerable. He stared up the showerhead and just felt the grime and dirt wash off his body. The water sluiced down his legs, and gurgled down the drain. Sasuke’s thoughts spun, chasing each other. Itachi had said if Sasuke obtained the Mangekyou Sharingan, there would be three people alive who could use it. All his clansmen had been killed at that point, so… the only person left must have been whoever was helping Itachi. The owner of a second Mangekyou.

Sasuke stared at his feet. Did he regret not killing Naruto?

He pressed his lips together. No. He had decided not to be Itachi’s puppet anymore, and to do things his own way. If he killed Naruto now, it would be on his own terms. Just to prove to himself that he could. Or if Naruto got in the way.

With a frustrated sigh, Sasuke grabbed the unscented bar of soap and lathered it up, vigorously scrubbing his scalp and washing off the rest of his body. So preoccupied was he with his thoughts of Itachi and the second Uchiha assassin that he barely heard his bathroom door swing open. The distorted outline of a projectile flew towards his head through the warped shower glass.

Sasuke ducked at the last moment, just as the tip of his own sword smashed through the glass and embedded itself in the shower tile. There was barely any room in the stall to move, and the sword was too long to be an effective weapon in such a cramped area. On pure instinct, Sasuke grabbed one of the bigger slices of glass now littering the stall floor with one hand, and reached up to dislodge his sword with the other. A second projectile flew towards him. Sasuke twisted, red eyes whirring. The kunai shattered a second hole into the shower stall door and embedded itself into his hipbone instead of his abdomen. He ignored it, still keeping a firm grip on Kusanagi’s blade, and pulled.

The moment the blade was free, he tore the stall door open. His assailant threw himself forward, kunai in hand, wasting no time trying to plunge it into Sasuke’s heart. Sasuke parried, ignoring the way the glass shard cut into his own palm where he gripped it. Using his opponent’s forward momentum, Sasuke jerked the man closer by his arm and slit his throat.

A spray of blood drenched the small shower space in red. Sasuke had to turn his head to avoid being blinded. His hands were slippery from blood and water, and he couldn’t hold the burly man up as he stopped gasping for air and his weight started sagging on top of him. Sasuke shoved the man off of him as soon as it became obvious his would-be assassin would not be moving anymore.

Still breathing hard, Sasuke surveyed the damage to his bathroom… and to himself. A few scratches, his palm was shredded, and a minor flesh would. He pulled the kunai out of his hip with a wince. He would need another shower, but he would survive. The room was in shambles though. Glass everywhere, and he cut his foot trying to gain a more solid foothold on the wet shower stall floor. Sasuke looked down at the prone man bleeding from his throat onto his floormat. It was the same man whose chuunin jacket he had wiped his blade on earlier today. But he didn’t remember the man being this strong. The force the assassin had exhibited right now was different from his performance earlier today. And how did he get into his room anyway?

Orochimaru delicately stepped into the bloody bathroom and surveyed the scene.

“You’re still alive, oh good,” Orochimaru remarked. Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

“Those are nice eyes, Sasuke-kun,” Orochimaru smiled slyly. “It is good to see that you are still capable of killing.”

Sasuke said nothing, only continued glaring through the heavy spray of water. He snapped the water off with a flick, and grabbed his towel.

“It seems we had underestimated the potency of the new cursed seal enzyme,” Orochimaru continued, not taking his eyes off of Sasuke’s naked body. “Not only did it enhance strength, but also the senses it seems. This man probably followed your scent here, and had a vendetta…”

Sasuke flicked his gaze over the man’s prone form. He deactivated his Sharingan.

“He was definitely stronger than before,” Sasuke conceded, wrapping a towel around his waist. His hand and foot were still bleeding, and so was the stab wound on his hip and the various scratches on his body from the glass. But he couldn’t do anything about that now. “Be more careful about how you run your experiments.”

“A shinobi should always be ready for a fight though, right Sasuke-kun?” Orochimaru leered.

Sasuke didn’t dignify that with a response. He stepped over the glass and corpse, and moved past Orochimaru into his own room. More bodies littered his bedroom and what he could see of the hallway beyond. It seemed quite a number of test subjects had escaped. Such was the nature of the Northern hideout. This was where Orochimaru performed most of his human experiments after all. At least this hideout had running water and electricity. The Western hideout had neither, and as they moved around from base to base, Sasuke got to experience the amenities, or lack thereof, in each one. As much as he disliked the occasional muffled scream that would travel these hallways, he was grudgingly grateful to be able to take a proper bath.

“Sasuke-kun,” Kabuto poked his head around the corner. “Are you injured?” Kabuto’s hand still glowed a faint blue from his chakara scalpel. These escapees had met a quick death it seems. They were the lucky ones in a place like this.

“Just a few cuts. I will need bandages for my hands and feet.”

“Of course,” Kabuto smiled that fake, pleasant smile of his and beckoned Sasuke to follow him.

Dropping his towel, Sasuke grabbed his dark gray sleeping yukata off his bed, tied it in place with a few deft strokes, and followed Kabuto back to the laboratory.

* * *

With the failed experiment fresh in their minds, Orochimaru and Kabuto devoted themselves completely to pursuing their data sets and lab samples. Orochimaru neglected Sasuke’s training. And while Sasuke would have complained, his foot still ached and bled when he walked on it and… Sasuke had his own research to do.

Orochimaru was normally a devoted teacher, and very through in his instructions. But if the Sannin knew all of Sasuke’s jutsu, Sasuke didn’t stand a chance defeating him when the time came. Sasuke was keenly aware of the risks, despite what anyone thought. He would sell his soul for power, but he wasn’t stupid. And he didn’t believe Orochimaru for a second that, after the man took his body from him, that Orochimaru would kill Itachi for him.

What they had was an elaborate game of snake and mouse. Except who was the snake and who was the mouse hadn’t been decided yet. Sasuke refused to play the victim in his own life story.

So Sasuke snuck into one of Orochimaru’s secret laboratories while the Sannin was busy. Orochimaru had probably hundreds of these, all over the continent. Nooks behind walls, hidden doorways. Sasuke only noticed it due to the traces of chakara disappearing behind a seemingly solid stone wall. It was such a small detail, but Sasuke was observant. His Sharingan had been activated. It was three in the morning, and he was supposed to be sleeping. But Orochimaru had gone out with Kabuto for a few days, leaving Sasuke with the perfect opportunity to explore. He had left a kagebunshin in his bed as a precaution for curious eyes.

When Sasuke pushed the heavy stone door open, he found a dark laboratory full of documents waiting for him. Overflowing bookshelves lined the walls, and Sasuke eyed them speculatively, pulling a sleeve over his nose to keep out the dust and stale air. Nobody had been in here for ages. The air smelled heavily of rotting paper.

Sasuke mindlessly flipped a few of the papers up and glanced over them as he passed through the dark lab, dust clouds trailing his footsteps and clinging to his black kimono. All sorts of intercepted transmissions and secret contracts littered the crammed, moulding space. Despite the seeming abundance of political secrets in the room, Sasuke wasn’t here for politics. He was looking for jutsu, leads on Akatsuki and his brother, or keys to Orochimaru’s weaknesses. Everything else was irrelevant. So it was sheer, useless curiosity that had him idly pick up one set of ancient-looking papers over another with Konoha’s seal on the front cover. The stamp across the folder read “Security Level: Black”. Sasuke had no idea what that meant, but he was curious. He casually flipped open the front cover, and came face-to-face with a mug shot of his brother in an ANBU uniform.

Sasuke’s eyes widened, and he moved closer to the light of the sole candle he had lit in the room. Whatever this was, it had something to do with Itachi. Sasuke was immediately interested.

What followed was a detailed report on the Akatsuki and their military movements. Sasuke’s eyes scanned the pages quickly, not really understanding what this had to do with Itachi and his ANBU photo. The report touched briefly on the known members of Akatsuki, but curiously did not mention Itachi at all. According to this report, Orochimaru had also been a former member of the organization. Somehow, this did not surprise Sasuke. Political intrigue and maneuvering was in Orochimaru’s blood as much as the experimental jutsus were.

Sasuke stared at Itachi’s ANBU photo in mute contemplation, then turned back to the file. His hands were shaking, and it took him a moment to realize that this was excitement. He was ecstatic to have found a clue relating to his brother. Until now, all he had had was hearsay about Akatsuki and their whereabouts. Orochimaru would drop the occasional hint as well, but never deigned to give him a straight answer. Here Sasuke had just struck gold.

He looked around the room, high on hope. If he had found information on Akatsuki here this easily, there must be more treasure buried. He dug through numerous irrelevant documents about civil war and corruption in Amegakure, famine and the chain of supply in Wind country, and the destruction of Uzushiogakure. But none of that mattered. He was looking for the words “Uchiha Itachi” only.

Sasuke started separating the documents into a few different piles. Orochimaru would definitely notice someone had been in here. He had disrupted too much dust, and the files were strewn about the space in more disorder than he had found them in. But he didn’t care. Sasuke would deal with the consequences as they came. This was too valuable of an opportunity to pass up. He had three days to excavate out of these archives whatever useful information he could, and he wasn’t going to waste it tip-toeing around.

For the first two hours after his initial discovery, he found nothing more on Itachi. Sasuke tossed yet another bundle of papers onto the Konoha-related reject pile and sighed in frustration. What he had found was a lot of dirt on the Hokage administration, and the existence of a subdivision called “Root”, but that had nothing to do with Itachi. He speculatively eyed the various stacks of files surrounding him. He should probably branch out into other countries’ records. The Akatsuki have been known to wander about, and Konoha was only one of their targets. Or more specifically… Naruto was one of their targets. But he still didn’t know why. He smoothed a palm over a stack of papers and closed his eyes in contemplation.

There were footsteps outside the door. Sasuke’s eyes immediately snapped open, Sharingan activating. The shuffling passed by though, and continued down the hallway, unaware of the secret room and the intruder in it. He had closed the hidden door after himself, and it shouldn’t be visible from the outside. But yet another set of footsteps wandered through the corridor, echoing between the stone walls. With a start, Sasuke realized the sun had probably risen already, and the base was waking. He had spent longer amongst the archives than he thought. With a stiff groan, he straightened from his cross-legged sitting position on the floor, and grabbed the now low-burning candle. The underground base not having windows was really inconvenient sometimes.

He looked around the room decisively, one last time, and grabbed the one file on Itachi he had found, tucking it into the folds of his kimono. This was coming with him. Orochimaru wouldn’t miss it.

* * *

“Sasuke-sama, are you alright? You seem really tired today.”

Sasuke looked up from his bowl of soba noodles and onigiri. He looked tired because he hadn’t slept all night. Sasuke stared at the girl who had served him breakfast. She had long black hair, modestly pinned back in a bun, and a closed-off posture. She wore the uniform of the kitchen staff. The girl promptly looked down at her feet and blushed furiously.

“Thank you for the food,” he replied instead, dismissing her and picking up his chopsticks. “I’m fine.”

“Of course, um, let me know if you need any more tea…” She furtively looked at his untouched cup of green tea.

Sasuke nodded and continued eating. After a moment, the girl excused herself and returned to the kitchen. Sasuke stared after her speculatively, but kept eating. He itched for nothing more than to return to the old laboratory right away. But he had to put on appearances. So instead he finished his breakfast, and went to train in one of the arenas.

He started off with some pushups and situps to warm up, then moved to taijutsu katas. Repeating them over and over, until sweat was rolling down his back and his bangs were sticking to his forehead. He ignored the eyes observing his training. As he pulled out his katana and started on his kenjutsu training, he imagined Itachi in front of him. How would his brother counter? Would he fight with shuriken and kunai, or would he have a wakazashi like when he was in ANBU? With firm resolve, Sasuke twisted his fingers into the tiger seal and created a kagebunshin.

“You. Try to fight like Itachi would,” Sasuke instructed the clone, readying his own stance. The clone nodded, and threw his own katana aside in favour of a kunai. Last Sasuke saw him, Itachi hadn’t been carrying any long-bladed weapons. Unlike that blue-skinned partner of his. But Sasuke remembered from his childhood how adept Itachi had been with simple kunai.

Sasuke pressed his lips together and charged. The clone parried admirably, deflecting Kusanagi’s repeated attacks moments before it would have cut the clone’s skin and dispelled it. But ultimately a clone’s power was only a portion of the jutsu caster’s, even with instructions to fight with the intent to murder its own original.

Sasuke pushed past his clone’s guard and stabbed Kusanagi straight through its heart, running chidori along the blade for good measure. The clone gasped, slumping against Sasuke, and choked on its own non-existent blood. It disappeared in a puff of smoke. Sasuke breathed hard and made eye contact with the black haired kitchen girl, observing him from a doorway. Despite the act, Sasuke knew she was Orochimaru’s spy and instructed to keep an eye on him. Sasuke would give her a good show.

* * *

Sasuke went to bed for the rest of the evening, not having to fake his exhaustion from training. He woke up around midnight. Forming a quick seal, he left behind another shadow clone in his bed and snuck out of his own bedroom. He was going to the hidden laboratory.

This time, he had to find something. Time was running short, and there was no guarantee Orochimaru wouldn’t return early from his excursion with Kabuto.

“Heading out again to the laboratory, Sasuke-sama?”

Sasuke halted, his hand still on his doorknob. He shut the door behind himself, then turned to face the kitchen girl.

“Orochimaru sent you to spy on me.”

“I am not denying that,” the girl murmured, but made no move towards the kunai pouch hidden underneath her clothing.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. “What do you want?”

“You are not the only one who wants to see Orochimaru fall. I am just warning you to be more careful. Orochimaru-sama has eyes in many places, and some of them are even loyal.”

Sasuke smirked. “Unlike you?”

The girl didn’t rise to the bait. “We all have our reasons for being here.”

Sasuke turned his back to her and started down the hallway. She didn’t move to follow. Sasuke didn’t care. She could tell Orochimaru whatever she wanted. Sasuke didn’t trust her anyway. For all he knew, this was another setup by Orochimaru himself to test Sasuke’s loyalty. And Orochimaru knew damn well where Sasuke’s loyalty lay.

Orochimaru would be dead by the end of the year. Sasuke would make sure of it.

**Author's Note:**

> "Shock Doctrine" is the concept that free-market policies have come to dominate the world through the exploitation of disaster-shocked people and countries. I thought it made an interesting parallel with Sasuke's own situation, where pretty much every major villain in the series goes and traumatizes the poor boy to get him to do what they wanted. 
> 
> Originally this fic was meant to extend into twisting Sasuke's resolution to become Hokage into him razing a few hidden villages, and establishing a dictatorial rule over the five nations. Naruto, as someone on the side of the rebel resistance, would then have to fight against him. But I am a painfully slow writer, and so ran out of time far, faar before the story could reach that point. Oh well. Maybe in another fic?


End file.
